Science Policy Around the Web – October 21, 2014

Ebola is a scary, lethal virus. Luckily, “There’s a reason it’s not everywhere. It’s just not as easy to transmit as people think.” said CDC epidemiologist, Michael Kinzer. So far, the only people to become infected while living in the US are two health-care works that treated the initial patient while he was having severe symptoms, including vomiting and diarrhea. In Ebola, the amount of virus in the body is not the same throughout the course of the infection. As the disease progresses, the amount of Ebola virus present in the body and bodily fluids increases dramatically. Since Ebola is transmitted through direct contact with bodily fluids, individuals without symptoms are not contagious despite being infected with Ebola. However, fears of Ebola have led to what some believe to be overreactions, including a cruise ship that was turned away from port or a school that temporarily closed because an employee had traveled on a different flight that used the same airplane as an Ebola infected health-care worker. As Kinzer told the Guinea media this summer, “Ebola’s not transmitted by the air. Fear and ignorance are transmitted by the air.” (Joel Achenbach and Brady Dennis, Washington Post)

The White House has announced that it is pausing any funding for new Gain-of-Function studies on viruses, like influenza, MERS, or SARS, and has called for a voluntary moratorium on existing research projects. Gain-of-Function studies have been controversial both inside and outside the scientific community. These types of studies seek to understand what kinds of mutations are necessary for a virus to evolve to become more pathogenic or to be more easily transmitted in humans or mammels. Proponents argue that these studies help in pandemic planning and strategies for vaccine development. Opponents argue that these studies are generating viruses that have the potential to cause a pandemic if accidentally or intentionally released from the labs. Concerns have been elevated due to recent concerns over safety at high-level containment research labs. US policy for determining the risk/benefits and approval process for these types of gain-of-function will be evaluated by both the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity and by the National Academy of Sciences over the next year. (Jocelyn Kaiser and David Malakoff, ScienceInsider)

Cancer Immunotherapy is a promising precision medicine approach for treating cancer, and was named Science magazine’s breakthrough of the year in 2013. In a recent study, cancer immunotherapy was shown to be an effective treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a cancer of B-cells. This treatment worked well in patients who had failed traditional therapies, including some whose cancer had previously returned even after stem cell transplants. This study reported impressive, durable results six months after therapy, with 23 of 30 patients alive, 19 of 30 in complete remission, and with 15 of 30 receiving no additional therapy. In this particular version of cancer immunotherapy, a patient’s own T-cells were harvested, then genetic bits of information are added to their T-cells to help them recognize B-cells (which are the source of the cancer), the modified T-cells are given back to the patient, and then these genetically modified T-cells hunt and kill the cancerous B-cells. As with any therapy, this treatment does have side effects most, including destruction of healthy B-cells and Cytokine release syndrome, a systematic inflammatory response that can cause a high fever, a drop in blood pressure, and difficulty breathing. This study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine and was partially sponsored by Novartis which holds the license to develop this therapy. In July, the FDA designated this engineered T-cell treatment as a “breakthrough therapy” which should help expedite the development and regulatory review of this therapy. (Denise Grady, New York Times)